Day 409

Yesterday I looked at the week in review, today let’s look at the year, and the longer scope of history in regards to Trump and the Radical Right (oftentimes called “Conservatism.”) Conservatism as it has been put into action has little to do with conserving anything. If you think of the idea of “Conserving the Environment for Future Generations” or “conserving your money” and you look at the modern political movements that call themselves conservative you would be hard pressed to make a case that they are either conserving resources or money; in fact, they are doing quite the opposite. What are they doing and why? I know you’ll find this shocking but at it’s core it’s about money. Money, power, and control would be how I would characterize it. This is nothing new. History is littered with people and classes of people using their knowledge and authority to subjugate others. When it becomes really dangerous is when those in power don’t realize it’s a con.

In the latest Rolling Stone (March 8, 2018) there’s a two page spread entitled “Trump Versus The Working Class.” That article goes into outline detail as to how Trump and his band have screwed over the average joe. I’ll list the nine areas and the subheads:

Higher Taxes:

Hikes for Workers

Breaks for Robots

Jobs sent Overseas

Lower Wages

Overtime Denied

Tipping Employers

Contract Employees

Costly Living

High Housing Costs

Slashed Deductions

Financial Exploitation

High Investor Fees

Gutting Consumers

No Class Action

Tax Cuts for the Rich

No Health Care

Lost Benefits

Spiking Premiums

Diploma Debt

Loan Repayment

Opioid Crisis

Little Done on Drugs

Burning Jobs

Kneecapping Solar

Cruel Cuts

Dangerous Workplaces

Lax Contracts

Unsafe Conditions

That list is pretty much the conservative agenda. Those are the positive things they want to do. the negative ones are even more sinister. To accomplish their goals they resort to lying and gas lighting: black is white, white is black, It’s not raining; that’s liquid sunshine, whatever.

The acolytes of the cause are people like Ran Paul with his nutty economic ideas that he inherited from his dad. (“If we diddle the money supply through interest rates we can fix everything.” – Please.)

Or William Buckley and his spawn, which is oft seen as the roots of the modern conservative movement. The problem I’ve always had with Buckley going back to when I was ten years old and I’d tune into his show Crossfire was the basic dishonesty of not only what he was saying, but how he said it. The show while appearing to be a discussion of an issue or a conversation to try and understand a guest’s point of view was nothing of the sort. As a kid it seemed odd to me, something was wrong; it didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was. What it was was an attempt to belittle the guest and their ideas through the misuse of terms and definitions, ie language, to try and make something that was real seem silly and irrational and what he espoused which really was silly and irrational seem wholesome and real, even believable. Buckley was very successful in doing this. He’s considered the father of modern conservatism.

Ask yourself this, “If conservatism is so great and successful why are we in such a mess?” Since WWII Republicans have been in charge of government in this country for more years than Democrats. They all espouse “conservative principles” whatever that means, yet, here we are, in worse shape than ever. Why? Could it be that “this shit don’t work”? Or would you like me to dress it up in more prosaic terms?